Mexico feels our fiscal pain

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NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — Economists have their numbers, and taco vendor Jorge Flores has his.

From a half-empty parking lot at an industrial park, Flores measures Mexico's economic health in terms of steaming hot tacos, orange sodas and scoops of fiery green salsa. And the taco index is looking shaky.

"I used to come here with 300 tacos and sell them all before noon. Now I sell 180 in the same time," he says, pointing out factories that have cut hours, stopped overtime and frozen hiring. "I don't even come here on weekends anymore."

Like many Mexicans, Flores fears that the U.S. economic crisis is beginning to spill over to Mexico, the United States' biggest trading partner after Canada and China. Migrants are sending home less money, banks are tightening their lending, and U.S. consumers are buying fewer cars, televisions and other Mexican-made products.

"It would be a delusion to say we won't suffer some consequences of this great crisis," Mexican Treasury Secretary Agustín Carstens said in a speech last week. "Exports, tourism and (migrant) remittances are all going to feel the effects of this phenomenon."